HAIL 



179 



is simply ice held suspended in mid-air ; snow is a 

 floating congealed mass of the nature of hoar-frost. 

 I have already said that the difference between 

 water and dew is reproduced in the difference of 

 hoar-frost and ice, and, in like manner, in that 

 between snow and hail. 



IV 



I MIGHT take leave of the question here, holding i 

 that I had finished it. But I will give you good 

 measure, and, having begun to trouble you with 

 my speculations, I will discuss everything con- 

 nected with the topic. One of the cognate ques- 

 tions is, why in winter there is snow but no 

 hail, while in spring, after the worst of the cold 

 is over, there are falls of hail. For let me be 

 deceived for your benefit, though I may say I am 

 fully persuaded of the truth of what I am about 

 to affirm. I lend always a credulous ear to these 

 trivial falsehoods ; perhaps they deserve to be 

 punished by having one's mouth stopped, but they 2 

 hardly call for the putting out of one's eyes ! In 

 winter the atmosphere is stiff, and is therefore not 

 as yet capable of being converted into water, but 

 only into snow, to which the atmosphere is more 

 akin. But when spring begins, a greater variation 

 of the atmosphere ensues, and, the sky being warmer, 

 the drops are larger. Therefore, as our poet Virgil 



says : 



When rain-charged spring descends, 



there is a more violent change in the atmosphere, 

 which everywhere opens up and relaxes through the 

 action of the mere warmth. For this reason the 

 clouds that are carried to earth are heavy and large 3 



